LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 413 



I have shown that in the case of Goldsmith Maid patient 

 and careful handling accomplished the desired result. 



In regard to the actual training of Goldsmith Maid after 

 she became a first-class trotter, I can Avrite but very little 

 because no trotter I ever had needed less training than this 

 mare. As a matter of fact she did not Avant any training at 

 all in the ordinary sense of the word so long as she trotted 

 a race every week, for the excitement and exertion of these 

 contests served to keep her in excellent X3hysical condition, 

 so that she was always ready to go at her best rate of speed 

 and continued doing it as long as she possibly could. I have 

 said above that she was a mare whose speed came to her 

 only after she was in training, and as long as I had her I 

 found this to be the case. Ever}?^ sj^tring she would show no 

 speed at all until the season was j)retty well advanced and 

 then her old forai would retui'n and in a very short time 

 she would be in racing trim. After that there was very little 

 work needed. All she wanted was the jogging that would 

 ordinarily be given to trotters in training and between her 

 races a repeat in about 2:40. An easier horse to train than 

 Goldsmith Maid, once I got the hang of her, was never under 

 my care. She was a great feeder though, and I gave her 

 j)lenty to eat, her specialty in that line being hay. I never 

 saw a horse of her size that would eat anything like the 

 amount of hay that Goldsmith Maid would. Of course she 

 got plenty of it at all times, and on the evening before the 

 day on which she was to trot a I'ace I would have a big pile 

 of it put in her stall — half as much again as you would give 

 a sixteen-hand horse that was a hearty feeder — and in the 

 morning every wisp of it would be gone. On the morning 

 of the day that she was to trot in a race I would jog her 

 three miles and at the finish let her move through the 

 stretch for a ways, and when she struck a gait that pleased 

 me I would pull her up. Slie would get a light feed of hay 

 after her work, and that was all the ' ' drawing ' ' that I found 

 necessary in her case. 



Of course so intelligent a mare as Goldsmith Maid and 



